IYA2009 Updates

5 February 2010

IYA2009 and astronomy promoted effectively in Slovenia Dr. Andreja Gomboc, IYA2009 Single Point of Contact for Slovenia, has been promoting astronomy in Slovenian parliament. She recently gave a 30-minute talk entitled "Us and the Universe". See more here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/769/

Galileo Teacher Training Program 2010 - Call for Proposals The IAU and UNESCO has earmarked a certain amount of funding to support beyond IYA2009 related projects and activities in developing regions. This call for proposals comes via the Galileo Teachers Training Program GTTP cornerstone and is thus targeted at providing seed funding and basic support in order to stimulate teacher training workshops in developing regions. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/768/

"Worlds of the Sky": the first live webcast from a professional telescope of an exoplanet's transitOn Saturday, February 13, 2010 the exoplanet XO-3b will transit its parent star. Although the phenomenon itself is not spectacular, as this planet orbits its star in less than four days, it will be accompanied by an extraordinary event on Earth: for the first time ever, a professional telescope will observe the transit and the light curve will be webcast live. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/767/

The Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE)SPORE has been established to encourage innovation and excellence in education, as well as to encourage the use of high-quality on-line resources by students, teachers, and the public. In 2009, the prize recognized outstanding projects from all regions of the world that brought freely available online resources to bear on science education. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/766/

Global Astronomy Month – April 2010 Professional and amateur astronomers, educators and all astronomy enthusiasts worldwide are invited to celebrate the Universe in April 2010, during Global Astronomy Month – an international project that builds on the achievements of The International Year of Astronomy 2009, by combining a wide array of activities with the possibility of sharing experiences in real-time! http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/765/